Archive for January, 2009

I have put together a page outlining a proposal for GTA fare integration. This could be extended to cover the entire GTHA as well, but I describe the GTA only to keep it simpler (as well as a shorter page showing what currently exists). Only transit agencies that immediately border on Toronto are included.

This is just an initial draft and will no doubt be revised, partly due to feedback I receive. By all means, look it over and post your comments here.

January 20 addition:

There has been discussions on other websites and in the media (see this article from the Globe and Mail) regarding a Metrolinx report on fare integration that was to be on the agenda of last week’s meeting, but for some reason was quickly removed from the agenda and removed from their website. In case you haven’t seen it, you can take a look here.

This has nothing to do with LRT, but since I have not seen the discussion on any other sites, I thought I would throw it out here…

As we all know by now, there was a major power failure in the west end last night with much of it continuing well into today. The Bloor-Danforth subway operations were not effected directly, since propulsion and signalling power were not lost. However, stations between Jane and St. George lost power. Last evening, operations could continue with the emergency lighting at these stations, but as this is from battery power, it was gone by the morning.

The morning rush hour saw service split with one section operating from Kipling to Jane and the other from Kennedy to St. George, with shuttle buses between Jane and St. George. There were unconfirmed reports that trains actually ran through, out of service, between Jane and St. George.

My question is, “Why did they not run trains express between Jane and St. George?”

Shuttle buses would still be needed for people needing access to and from the intermediate stations, but the number of shuttle buses needed would have been less. Furthermore, the great majority of passengers who were travelling all the way through the effected area would not have been inconvenienced with the need to change to a shuttle and back to the subway again. In fact, their trip might have been a couple of minutes quicker!

Somebody please give me a logical reason why this could not have been done!

The TTC has released a notice of study completion on the Sheppard East LRT for Transit City. You can view the document here. The decision about whether to have an LRT connection with the subway at Don Mills or to extend the subway to Consumers for the LRT connection has yet to be made.

Just yesterday (January 5), I updated the York Region Options page to reflect more recent information that has come out of the planning process for the Yonge Subway extension. In the update, I mentioned that a number of other conditions would be necessary in order for the extension to work, and that the cost of these, when added to the construction of the extension, would total to about $4.3 billion dollars.

Today news stories (such as this one in the National Post) report this true cost of the subway extension. On the York Region Options page, I made the claim that the public will only be told of the $2.4 billion cost. However, I must commend Mayor David Miller for proving me wrong. In the article he says:

“The province needs to know that costs are not just the $2.4-billion cost of the line, there are all these ancillary costs that are part of the project…. The work that needs to be done for this project is somewhere in the range of $4-to $5-billion.”

It is nice to see that perhaps the public will see the true cost of this extension.